Wrestling was too rough for him as a kid and he almost quit football in his mid-teens because he was too small!

This hardly seems to be the same Ole Gunnar Solskjaer whose courage among the flying boots in the penalty box has made him a Manchester United legend and whose determination and self-belief have been his watchwords during the pain and trauma of a three-year fight to overcome knee trouble.

Yet Solskjaer really did snub the sport that made his dad a Norwegian champion for five years and the game that has made the 33-year-old himself a national hero and one of the most popular members of Old Trafford's Hall of Fame.

Solskjaer's father Oyvind was Norway's No 1 Greco-Roman wrestling superstar between 1966-71.

It was Solskjaer senior's hope that his son would follow in his footsteps.

Ole tried the sport for three years but his frail frame meant he struggled to make progress towards emulating his father's achievements and he hated being thrown around as his mother Brita once recalled.

Besides Solskjaer junior had another love, football. He even slept with a ball every night.

Action

In his small home island town of Kristiansund in Norway's Eastern fjords the highlights of the week for young Ole was Saturday night when BBC's Match of the Day beamed the action from England and Thursday when English soccer magazines `Shoot' and `Match Weekly' were shipped into town.

"I used to write down all the team sheets and formations from Match of the Day. I think I knew everything about 90s football in England," said the man whose first love was Liverpool!

The `Match of the Day' treat was followed all the next week by Solskjaer kicking a football endlessly on a sand and gravel pitch near his home.

Solskjaer's accuracy in front of goal was undoubtedly honed on that patch of land because if he struck the ball correctly it would end up in the net and he wouldn't have to waste valuable practice time chasing after the wildy-hit effort!

"I used to watch tapes of Kenny Dalglish, Gary Lineker and Marco van Basten and try to imitate them," he said.

"I remember trying so hard to copy a Peter Beardsley trick."

The dedication and talent saw him picked out by his local club Clausengen as one of the bright young prospects at the age of eight.

A football school had been set up at the club by a coach from England called Harry Game in the 70s. Solskjaer was taken on and soon began to prosper as a potential goalscorer.

Reputations

Clausengen were a small club in a small town but their junior players began earning big reputations.

One of them was Arild Stavrum. The striker, was eventually to play with Aberdeen, partnered Solskjaer for Norway and up until this month was the coach of Ole's former club Molde.

"I was a year older than Ole Gunnar and we played together for eight years from being about seven or eight years old," Stavrum said.

"Ole grew up a few blocks away from me so I was always aware of this little kid who could pop in a few goals. I knew that he was a big talent and, as I grew up and began to appreciate football more, I could see the ability Ole had.

"But his biggest problem was that he struggled because he was on the small side. We were quite a good team at that time and despite his goals and the ability we knew he had I don't think he really caught the eye of anyone outside of our club because he was so small.

"We all loved our football and we trained a lot, Ole did a lot of work outside the club practising as well. He wanted to succeed and he was ambitious like I was.

"But there was always this problem that he might not make it because of his size.

"However, around his mid-teens he began to shoot up naturally and put on weight. He became bigger and stronger but it still wasn't enough for him to join the big leagues though there were teams who wanted to take him on.

Transfer

"When I was 18 I was transferred to the Norwegian Premier League. I was ready to play against adults but Ole decided he wasn't quite up to it. So he remained at Clausengen for another two years in the Third Division in a bid to make sure when he finally did make the step up he was ready.

"It was a remarkable way of thinking for someone to put on hold one of their ambitions. But he knew he had to be right. By the time he eventually did move to Molde he was ready. That's the professionalism of the guy."

It's a sentiment echoed by former Manchester City defender Aage Hareide who was desperate to tempt Solskjaer to Molde. Despite scoring 31 of Clausengen's 47 goals in one league season Hareide had to wait to capture his man.

It wasn't until 1995 as a 22-year-old that Ole felt ready to play in Norway's top flight.

"I had seen Ole play two years before as a 20-year-old and I wanted to take him to Molde then," said Aage.

"But Ole wouldn't move because he didn't want to push it. He didn't think he was ready to step up and wanted to be patient.

"He wanted to stay in the lower division and practise and get better so eventually he would be ready for the bigger league.

"It was impossible to persuade him otherwise. He was an very determined character."

Sadly for Hareide he didn't have Solskjaer leading his attack for very long.

His two-season haul of goals at Molde and elevation to the Norwegian full international side had exposed him to a much bigger audience - among them United.